Towards flexible asymmetric MSM structures using Si microwires through contact printing

This paper presents development of flexible metal-semiconductor-metal devices using silicon (Si) microwires. Monocrystalline Si in the shape of microwires are used which are developed through standard photolithography and etching. These microwires are assembled on secondary flexible substrates through a dry transfer printing by using a polydimethylsiloxane stamp. The conductive patterns on Si microwires are printed using a colloidal silver nanoparticles based solution and an organic conductor i.e. poly (3,4-ethylene dioxthiophene) doped with poly (styrene sulfonate). A custom developed spray coating technique is used for conductive patterns on Si microwires. A comparative study of the current–voltage (I–V) responses is carried out in flat and bent orientations as well as the response to the light illumination of the wires is explored. Current variations as high as 17.1 μA are recorded going from flat to bend conditions, while the highest I on/I off ratio i.e. 43.8 is achieved with light illuminations. The abrupt changes in the current response due to light-on/off conditions validates these devices for fast flexible photodetector switches. These devices are also evaluated based on transfer procedure i.e. flip-over and stamp-assisted transfer printing for manipulating Si microwires and their subsequent post-processing. These new developments were made to study the most feasible approach for transfer printing of Si microwires and to harvest their capabilities such as photodetection and several other applications in the shape of metal-semiconductor-metal structures

Tuning Electrical Conductivity of CNT-PDMS Nanocomposites for Flexible Electronic Applications

This paper presents a study into the electrical conductivity of multi-wall carbon nanotube-polydimethylsiloxane (MWNT-PDMS) nanocomposite and their dependence on the filler concentration. It is observed that the electrical conductivity of the composites can be tailored by altering the filler concentration. Accordingly, the nanocomposites with filler weight ratio ranging from 1% to 8% were prepared and tested. Finally, the significance of results presented here for flexible pressure sensors and stretchable interconnects for electronic skin applications have been discussed

Highly Sensitive Flexible Capacitive Pressure Sensor with ZnO NW interlayers

Pressure or force sensors that can reliably detect a broad range of pressure with high sensitivity are prerequisite for applications such as human-machine interface, electronic skin in robotics, and health monitoring. This paper presents a novel approach to fabricate a highly sensitive capacitive pressure sensor by introducing a zinc oxide nanowire (ZnO NW) interlayers between the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/electrodes interface in the conventional metal-insulator-metal architecture. The sensing performances of PDMS-based pressure sensors with and without ZnO NW interlayers were investigated. The ZnO NW interlayers reinforced the electrical connection from metal to PDMS to significantly enhance the device performance with ~50 times improvement in sensitivity (from 0.125 %kPa -1 to 5.6452 %kPa -1 at a low-pressure range (0-10 kPa)) with respect to conventional PDMS only dielectric-based capacitive sensors

Piezoelectric graphene field effect transistor pressure sensors for tactile sensing

This paper presents graphene field-effect transistor (GFET) based pressure sensors for tactile sensing. The sensing device comprises GFET connected with a piezoelectric metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor in an extended gate configuration. The application of pressure on MIM generates a piezo-potential which modulates the channel current of GFET. The fabricated pressure sensor was tested over a range of 23.54–94.18 kPa, and it exhibits a sensitivity of 4.55 × 10−3 kPa−1. Further, the low voltage (∼100 mV) operation of the presented pressure sensors makes them ideal for wearable electronic applications

Service performance of refractories in connection with pusher reheating furnaces in Bhilai Steel Plant

Bhilai Steel Plant comprises of three finishing mills, which are equipped with continuous pusher reheating furnaces to heat blooms & billets from the blooming & billet mill at 2.5 M. T. stage. Reheating furnaces of rail & structural mill and merchant mill are of same design with three zones having 20 burners in each furnace (7 burners in top & bottom zone & 6 burners in soaking zone). The wire rod mill has got only one reheating furnace with 2 zones having 14 burners in each zone

Chiral constituent quark model and the coupling strength of eta'

Using the latest data pertaining to \bar u-\bar d asymmetry and the spin polarization functions, detailed implications of the possible values of the coupling strength of the singlet Goldstone boson \eta' have been investigated in the \chiCQM with configuration mixing. Using \Delta u, \Delta_3, \bar u-\bar d and \bar u/\bar d, the possible ranges of the coupling parameters a, \alpha^ 2, \beta^ 2 and \zeta^ 2, representing respectively the probabilities of fluctuations to pions, K, \eta and \eta^{'}, are shown to be 0.10 \lesssim a \lesssim 0.14, 0.2\lesssim \alpha \lesssim 0.5, 0.2\lesssim \beta \lesssim 0.7 and 0.10 lesssim |\zeta| \lesssim 0.70. To constrain the coupling strength of \eta', detailed fits have been obtained for spin polarization functions, quark distribution functions and baryon octet magnetic moments corresponding to the following sets of parameters: a=0.1, \alpha=0.4, \beta=0.7, |\zeta|=0.65 (Case I); a=0.1, \alpha=0.4, \beta=0.6, |\zeta|=0.70 (Case II); a=0.14, \alpha=0.4, \beta=0.2, \zeta=0 (Case III) and a=0.13, \alpha=\beta=0.45, |\zeta|=0.10 (Case IV). Case I represents the calculations where a is fixed to be 0.1, in accordance with earlier calculations, whereas other parameters are treated free and the Case IV represents our best fit. The fits clearly establish that a small non-zero value of the coupling of \eta' is preferred over the higher values of \eta' as well as when \zeta=0, the latter implying the absence of \eta' from the dynamics of \chiCQM. Our best fit achieves an overall excellent fit to the data, in particular the fit for \Delta u, \Delta d, \Delta_8 as well as the magnetic moments \mu_{n}, \mu_{\Sigma^-}, \mu_{\Sigma^+} and \mu_{\Xi^-} is almost perfect, the \mu_{\Xi^-} being a difficult case for most of the similar calculations.Comment: 8 RevTeX pages, 2 Tables, Revised version to appear in Int.J.Mod.Phys

Effect of Nuclear Family in Participation of Activities

In nuclear families parents pay more attention to child education; they plan school, college, career after discussion with field experts. Such consciousness increases their intention towards quality education. Parents belonging to nuclear family pay more money rather than a conventional family. Parents have become more concerned for child In other families attention on a child is distributed and unable to concentrate child only. This social trend influence child performance and quality education. They have a financial plan also regarding the study

Oscillation of Higher-Order Neutral-Type Periodic Differential Equations with Distributed Arguments

We derive oscillation criteria for general-type neutral differential equations [x(t) +αx(t− τ) +βx(t +τ)](n) = δ b ax(t − s)dsq1(t,s) + δ d c x(t + s)dsq2(t,s) = 0, t ≥ t0, where t0 ≥ 0, δ = ±1, τ > 0, b>a ≥ 0, d>c ≥ 0, α and β are real numbers, the functions q1(t,s) : [t0,∞) × [a,b] → R and q2(t,s):[t0,∞) × [c,d] → R are nondecreasing in s for each fixed t, and τ is periodic and continuous with respect to t for each fixed s. In certain special cases, the results obtained generalize and improve some existing ones in the literature. Copyright © 2007 R. S. Dahiya and A. Zafer. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedPublisher's Versio